General Notes

Also Known As:<_AKA> Richard II /Plantagenet/, King of England
Richard II (b. Jan. 6, 1367, Bordeaux, Fr.--d. February 1400, Pontefract, Yorkshire, Eng.), king of England from 1377 to 1399. His ultimate defeat and death in conflicts with powerful aristocratic opponents contributed to the enfeeblement and instability that characterized the English monarchy for the next 85 years.

He was the son of Edward the Black Prince and grandson of King Edward III. Richard succeeded to his grandfather's throne in June 1377. He had not yet come of age, and the government continued to be run by the same nobles--dominated by his uncle, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster--who had held power in the last years of the reign of Edward III.

Gaunt's misrule hastened the economic deterioration brought on by the Black Death and the prolonged conflict with France (the Hundred Years' War, 1337-1453). The result was the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the first great crisis of Richard's reign. Although he was probably acting under directions from his counsellors, Richard displayed great presence of mind when he pacified the rebels with deceptive promises on June 14-15, 1381. In 1382 the king was married to Princess Anne of Bohemia (d. 1394), to whom he became deeply devoted. By 1385 he had begun to build up a personal following of such frivolous courtiers as Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford. At the same time there emerged a ruthless opposition led by Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel; and Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.

Gaunt kept the peace between the factions until, in July 1386, he departed for Spain to pursue his personal dynastic ambitions in Castile, leaving Richard at the mercy of his enemies. At their instigation Parliament impeached his chancellor, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk (1386), and created an 11-man commission to oversee the king's activities for a year. When Richard declared these measures treasonable violations of the royal prerogative, his opponents retaliated by having the Parliament of 1388 outlaw his closest friends, some of whom were executed. The defenseless king submitted to the five principal opposition leaders--called the appellants--until in May 1389 he announced his intention to rule as an independent monarch of full age.

Gaunt's return from Spain in late 1389 stabilized the situation, and for eight years Richard worked in apparent harmony with Gaunt and the appellant lords. All this time the king was evidently waiting for an opportunity to revenge himself against his former enemies. He gradually formed a second and stronger royalist party, and by 1397 he was ready to strike. He had Arundel convicted of treason and executed; Warwick was banished and Gloucester imprisoned and murdered.

In September 1398 a quarrel between two former appellants, Gaunt's son Henry Bolingbroke and Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, gave the king an opportunity to banish both men. Hence, upon the death of John of Gaunt in February 1399, Richard had an excuse to confiscate the vast Lancastrian estates, which would have passed to Bolingbroke. He then made the disastrous mistake of leaving for Ireland (May 1399). In his absence Bolingbroke invaded England and rallied the nobility around himself. Returning to England in August, Richard surrendered to Bolingbroke without a fight. He abdicated (September 30) in favour of Bolingbroke, who ascended the throne as King Henry IV. In October Richard was imprisoned in Pontefract Castle, where he died four months later, possibly by starving himself to death. William Shakespeare's story of his murder in Richard II rests on no reliable authority. Richard revealed a sensitive appreciation of literature by patronizing Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Jean Froissart. [Encyclopædia Britannica CD '97]


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